Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross celebrates Christ’s saving love

On Sept. 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross honors the Cross upon which Christ gave his life for the salvation of the world.

The feast is a threefold commemoration of the discovery of the True Cross in Jerusalem, its first public veneration, and its recovery by the Eastern Roman Empire. Yet it honors more than the history of a sacred relic: The Cross stands as a sign of Christ’s victory and a revelation of God’s saving love for the world.

That meaning runs through the feast’s readings. St. Paul writes that Christ humbled himself by becoming “obedient to death, even death on a cross,” after which God exalted him. In the Gospel, Christ tells Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

The observance stems from events in fourth-century Jerusalem.

The website My Catholic Life states that in 326, St. Helena, the mother of the Holy Roman Emperor Constantine, went on a pilgrimage to Rome to establish churches at the sites of important events from the life of Jesus. This was shortly after the Edict of Milan in 313 allowed Christians to practice their faith throughout the Roman Empire.

When St. Helena was in Jerusalem, she found three discarded crosses near Mount Calvary. The local bishops confirmed the crosses were used to crucify Jesus and the two thieves who died with Him. In order to discover which cross belonged to Christ, a sick woman touched the crosses. She was immediately healed after touching one of them, which was taken as a sign that it was the True Cross.

Emperor Constantine ordered a church to be built including the sites of Mount Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre, and it housed the True Cross. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was dedicated on Sept. 13, 335. The next day, the Cross was brought outside the church for the faithful to venerate, marking the first Exaltation of the Holy Cross. 

The True Cross was kept in Jerusalem until the Persians invaded the city in 614, stole the Cross as a trophy, and refused to give it its proper veneration, as they were largely not Christians. In 626, Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius recovered the Cross after years of military campaigns, and he restored it to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem the following year.

After the restoration of the Cross, the universal Church began celebrating the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on Sept. 14.

The feast presents the Cross as the fullest expression of a God who draws near to humanity. As Pope Leo XIV explained on the feast in 2025:

“God saves us by showing himself to us, offering himself as our companion, teacher, doctor, friend, to the point of becoming bread broken for us in the Eucharist. In order to accomplish this task, he used one of the cruelest instruments that human beings have ever invented: the cross.”

The ancient antiphon “Adoramus Te Christe” offers a short and beautiful reflection on Christ’s cross. The translation is, “We adore you, oh Christ, and we bless you, for by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.” The antiphon has been set to music by various composers throughout the Church’s history.